Three years ago today I was just finishing a bowl of spicy chili after yet another long walk. We had broken into our “frozen meal” stash in hopes to coax baby V out with the kick of some jalepenos and chili powder. It worked! Less than 24 hours later, Cohen was born. “My life has not been the same since” wins best understatement.

Over the past three years, Cohen has proven to be a deep thinker and problem solver. He has a memory that is as close to photographic as I have ever witnessed. He loves to give kisses and get his boo boos kissed. He prefers macaroni for every meal with buttered noodles coming in a close second. He is incredibly social, waving hi to everyone he meets, even to our neighbor who walks his dog every morning around 6:30 am. He fights for toys with his sister a lot, but he can’t stand to not be in the same room as her. He gives more spontaneous hugs than anyone I have ever met. And when he says “I love you” he melts my heart.

We had his birthday party for my side of the family on Sunday. I want to freeze frame his smile as we sang “Happy Birthday” to him. I tried to capture it in a photograph, but the image does not capture the “aliveness” he brings to that moment, to every moment.

I think his GaGa Anne said it best went we sent her his preschool picture. “Could you just put a brick on his head??” This is just another way to say the title of this blog “Oh fleeting moment– stay” Maybe I should call the blog “Putting Bricks on our Heads”

But since I can’t put a brick on his head (though his Belgian noggin’ could surely take it), I’ll rememer how driving the other day he said “hey mama, more houses are sold up!” (or “for sale”)— and when looking at a flock of geese he said “Hey mama, the geese, they fly south. Through Barrington then to North Carolina!”

Soon he’ll probably be a wizard of words writing his own poetry– so I’ll document all the “forks and fa-poons” I can get.